Optical recording media are widely used because of their superior features such as their generally large storage capacity and their capability of non-contact recording/regeneration. In write-once optical discs, such as WORM media, CD-Rs, and DVD±Rs, recording is achieved by condensing a laser beam onto a microscopic area of an optical recording layer and changing the properties thereof, and regeneration is achieved due to the difference in light-reflection amount between the recorded sections and non-recorded sections.
In current optical discs of the above-described type, the wavelengths of semiconductor lasers used for recording/regeneration range from 750 to 830 nm for CD-Rs and from 620 to 690 nm for DVD-Rs. In order to further increase storage capacity, study-and-investigation is being made of optical discs using short-wavelength lasers, such as those using light having wavelengths of 380 to 420 nm as the recording light.
For optical recording media using short-wavelength recording light, various compounds are used in forming the media's optical recording layer. For example, Patent Documents 1 to 3 (listed below) report optical recording materials containing cyanine compounds having specific structures. Those compounds, however, are not always appropriate for optical recording materials used for making optical recording layers in terms of their absorption wavelength properties and durability.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid Open JP-A-2001-301333    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid Open JP-A-2004-339460    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid Open JP-A-11-58961